To submit your comments or opposition to the issuance of a OLCC license, use this form: Application Comment Form

Our neighbor Rick Sills writes this update to a post earlier this week about the Oregon Liquor Control Commission’s apparent lack of interest in considering neighborhood input into licenses:

By way of background, Ken Peterson, the Grant Park Neighborhood Association’s (GPNA) Land Use Chair, and the GPNA have for months been working to try to mitigate alcohol-related problems in their neighborhood .  Neighbors understood that these problems would only be made worse by the proposal of yet another convenience store (Jacksons #562) at the corner of N.E. 33rd and Broadway that would sell alcohol.  This proposed store will also be within 500 feet of Beverly Cleary Grade School, which is already adversely being impacted by alcohol-related problems near the school.  On 10/25/12, the OLCC Commissioners, after being fully informed at a public hearing of alcohol-related problems near Beverly Cleary Grade School and of strong neighborhood opposition, with apparent indifference to the livability of Grant Park and the safety of its schoolchildren, granted the proposed store an unrestricted OLCC license. Continue reading →

For many Portland children, the federally-sponsored school lunch is their main source for a nutritious, satisfying meal during the day. If there’s not enough food in the house, these children can go hungry on the weekend when the school lunch isn’t available.

Backpack Lunch volunteers pack two weekend lunches each Friday into the backpacks of Portland schoolchildren at risk of hunger on the weekend. We invite you to help us sustain and expand our ability to feed hungry schoolchildren in our midst.

Thank you to the Board of the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods for accepting the King Backpack Program as a fiscally-sponsored project, and to the staff of the Coalition for their help in structuring the program successfully.

The Backpack Lunch Program is an all volunteer program — there are no paid staff. If you wish to make a monetary donation, make check out to NECN-KNA. Please write “Backpack Donation” on the check and mail to King NA, 4815 NE 7th Avenue, Portland, 97212. $100 sponsors a school-year of weekend lunches for one child. Each donation, regardless of amount, is important.

Tannenbaum Madness:

Tannenbaum Madness is a season long walking tour of whimsical, wacky and sometimes-weird window displays created by Alberta Street’s local, independent retailers and an atmosphere created by our community.

Tannenbaum Madness opens on the day after Thanksgiving (Nov 23rd) and continues throughout the season. Incorporated into the festivities is Shop Local Shop Late, where many Alberta retailers will remain open until 7PM on Fridays between Thanksgiving and Christmas just for YOU! Please support your local independent businesses this holiday season.

Opening Night (Fri., Nov. 23rd) will include celebrations from 4-8PM. The street will be aglow with festive lights, music, gallery openings, restaurants serving some of the best food in town, and a little of the usual madness. All are welcome to come out and join the fun — grab some friends and carol your way up the street, enjoy a hot beverage, get a start on your holiday shopping, and bring the kids for crafty DIY ornament-making with Art on Alberta at Umpqua Bank. We are actively looking for carolers, wacky Santas, mischievous elves and more. If you would like to join the madness, visit: http://albertamainst.org/whats-happening/tannenbaum-madness/opening-night/join-madness/.

New this year, we hope you’ll join us for the Alberta Street Christmas Treet Lighting on Sat. Dec 1st at 4:30PM. Check albertamainst.org for the latest updates. Festive events will continue throughout November and December. Walking maps and additional events will be regularly added to our website as they become available!

Participating businesses include: abrahams&duffy | Alberta Main Street | antler gallery & store | Backtalk | Bin 21 | Bristlecone | Community Cycling Center | Flywheel Skate & Style | Frock | Garnish | Grasshopper | Green Bean Books | Guardino Gallery | Local Discoveries | Mimosa Studios | Modern Domestic | pedX | Random Order Pie Bar | RED SAIL | Redbird Studio | Salt & Straw | Screaming Sky Gallery | Six Days Art Co-op | Suite 6 Boutique | The Make House | The Pencil Test | The Shoe Store | The Waffle Window | Tumbleweed | Umpqua Bank Alberta/Art on Alberta

KNA member Rick Sills has been attending meetings of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, as it weighs liquor license, in Rick’s role as King neighborhood representative to the Safety and Livability Team at the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods.

In response to OLCC’s granting of a liquor license to a convenience mart in close proximity to the Beverly Cleary School, Rick writes:

Beverly Cleary School (BCS) is a second-grade through eighth-grade public grade school located in the Grant Park neighborhood (GPN) at 1915 N.E. 33rd Ave.; about seven hundred children currently attend BCS.

Recently some of our GPN neighbors have documented with photographs longstanding alcohol-related problems within 500 feet of Beverly Cleary School.

On the morning of October 25, 2012, two GPN neighbors went to an OLCC hearing and presented these (and other) pictures and testimony to the five-member OLCC Board of Commissioners in opposition to the OLCC license application denominated “Jacksons #562”.  Jacksons #562 involved an application for an OLCC license for a proposed “Jackson’s Market convenience store” to be located at the northwest corner of the intersection of N.E. 33rd and N.E. Broadway, within 500 feet of Beverly Cleary School. Continue reading →